Herniated Disc

If you sit for a living like many of the people we see, or even if you just sit at your computer watching cat videos for hours at night, your spinal discs aren't getting enough movement. Regular exercise does not focus on the discs in a way that effectively moves them through their ranges of motion every day.

Exercising the discs requires a very isolated motion. We use the Pettibon Wobble Chairs for this in our office.

This series of videos by Dr. Burl Pettibon explains the why and how of the Wobble Chairs that are scattered about our office. The videos are short and a bit geeky but I guarantee you will learn something.

If you haven't been instructed on use of the Wobble Chair let us know next time you are in for a visit and we'll orient you so you can maximize the benefit of each visit.

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: Over the thirty years that I have been
practicing chiropractic I have seen some pretty amazing stories of healing and
recovery. But the ones that don't recover as fast or completely as expected stick
with me just as long as the miracle ones do.

I consider every person I work with as
hiding a puzzle that I am driven to solve. Since our procedures follow the
basic laws of chemistry and physics applied to human physiology our results are
quite predictable, and it is a surprise when we see a poor or slow response.

But it happens.

After thousands of cases and hundreds of
thousands of spinal adjustments to solve the puzzles, I have noticed some
patterns and have found ways to maximize our results so we can now achieve
improvements that we weren't able to achieve twenty years ago, or even five
years ago.

Human bodies are designed for being and
staying healthy. Given the right conditions you can stay healthy indefinitely.
But there are some basic principles that you must follow to stay healthy.

First, you need to realize what health
really is. Is it looking good? Is it just feeling good?

Probably not!

Health is, by definition (Dorland's Medical
Dictionary),

"a state of optimal physical, mental and
social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

See that? "Optimal" meaning as
good as can be. And what comes first? Physical! Not Mental, not Social. But
Physical! And that's for a reason.

You can't have a good mental outlook if
your physical body is failing. Likewise you can't have a good Social life if
you don't feel good.

Farah Fawcett and Patrick Swayze are a
couple examples of people who looked good and even felt good until the disease
that was eating away at them surfaced. When you get that ill you examine what
is important in life.

I bet they would have paid any amount of
money for the chance at a few more years on earth. How much do you think Steve
Jobs would have paid for a couple more years with his family?

So, on what does optimal physical health
depend? It depends on all the cells and organs working together in harmony for
the good of the entire body. Every part contributes to the whole, every part is
important to the whole body, an interdependent community of tens of trillions
of cells all working together.

But it all works until there is some
interference with how the parts relate to each other.

These interferences are stresses of various
sorts. Most stresses fall into three categories:

Toxins like BPA in the plastic in our food
containers, Roundup in our lawns, Monsanto's Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in
our corn, or drugs flushed into our lakes ending up in our drinking water. Even
food can be considered toxin, anything we ingest that the body does not
recognize as something it can use for fuel or building blocks, or that is in too large or too small an amount.

Thoughts are stresses too. Work, family,
financial situations lead to stresses that activate the brain to flood the body
with nerve chemicals. Too much of these stresses, especially when conmbined
will lead to a breakdown in health.

The people that get the best results from
our care are those that address as many of these interfering barriers to their
health as possible. Someone who keeps the spine as functional and strong as
possible, keeps a healthy immune system by eating good whole food, includes
lots of vegetables, gets adequate protein, minimizes junk food and someone who
is active in handling their stresses will get better faster than someone who
doesn't.

Whether you have a recent onset pain
problem, like a work or auto injury or herniated disc or if you have a chronic
health problem, there is a reason your body is not as healthy and painfree as
it should be.

That's where we come in. When you need to
figure out which of these barriers are interfering with your recovery and why
you are not healing as well as you want to, then we can help you find the most
likely interferences and make a plan for how to remove them.

Whether it is a spinal rehabilitation plan
for restoring the curves in your spine, a weight loss plan to reduce the weight
on your spine and improve your metabolism or a nutritional program to handle
stress and increase your vital reserves we are happy to see you.

And we're especially excited to see you
become a healthier you.

If you or someone you know has lower back pain, sciatica or a herniated disc, call us at (414) 355-0433 to schedule a Complimentary Consultation with Dr. Donaldson to find out if you qualify for one of our StandUpRight Spinal Disc Decompression programs or request an appointment online.

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: A lumbar brace is a wrap-around or strap-on device that goes around the body to support the muscles and bony structures of the lower back. It may be called a lumbar brace, a belt or a corset. The purpose usually is to restrict the mobility of the spine. There are two basic kinds of braces, soft ones and rigid ones.

Soft braces are usually made of elastic or neoprene. They provide some degree of muscular support but mainly serve as a reminder to not move beyond a comfort range. They may help with better body mechanics and remind a person to stand upright but really do not aid in lifting ability or strength at all. People with arthritis or mild instability of the lower back may benefit from this type of brace.

Most spine problems are not the kind that need to be immobilized. The tissue heals better and faster with movement of the right kind. Excessive use of this soft type of brace does weaken the body's built-in muscular corset. We do not recommend the use of this type of brace for daily continuous use, even for weight-lifting. It may be used for specific tasks that may place you at risk of spinal injury by overloading the spine or putting you in a compromising position that might weaken your spine. Once that task is complete then the brace should be removed.

The rigid type of brace was made of plaster or stiff fiberglass in the past but modern ones are made of lighter materials like nylon, fiberglass and velcro. This allows greater comfort, better fit and adaptability.

There are certain circumstances when wearing a rigid belt is not only helpful but important. When the trunk musculature has been weakened to the point that it is unable to support the weight of the upper body, even normal motion can be damaging to the healing tissue. Immobilizing the spine becomes necessary until the muscles can regain enough strength and coordination to resume their normal role. We sometimes recommend the use of a rigid lumbar brace during the recovery period for people with herniated discs, degenerative discs or spinal stenosis in their lower spine.

While the brace can be uncomfortable or inconvenient, it is necessary to use for best healing. When you need it, you need it. And the time when you need it is when the spine needs to be immobilized to allow healing. Even in these cases the use of the brace should not be prolonged. Although a brace may require you to restrict some activities or form different habits, the support that a brace provides will speed your healing and may prevent further injury. It will be used during the treatment program and will be weaned when the muscle strength and coordination is rehabilitated.

So should you be wearing a brace? The goal is to use the brace as little as possible but as much as is necessary. The muscles of the trunk are a built-in brace that makes the best support most of the time. Adding an external brace to this complicates the motion pattern and may weaken the muscles. It is best in most cases to minimize the use of the brace so the muscles do not weaken.

Testing can show muscle weaknesses which can then be addressed. We will help determine if you will benefit from a brace and if so, which one. Then we will help you learn how to fit it comfortably and how to use it properly.

If you or someone you know has lower back pain, sciatica or a herniated disc, call us at (414) 355-0433 to schedule a Complimentary Consultation with Dr. Donaldson to find out if you qualify for one of our StandUpRight Spinal Disc Decompression programs or request an appointment online.

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: We hear this question a lot? Especially when people first come in. Some think that they are having a problem because they didn't exercise enough and want to start working-out right away. Some think they have been over-exercising and want to just stop all activity and lie around for a couple weeks.

When you start to feel better you become dangerous to yourself. You feel like getting back to doing the things that got you here in the first place.

The key is to avoid the extremes of both. Not too much, not too little. After fifteen minutes of immobility the tissue starts to stiffen up and you are more likely to re-injure yourself. After fifteen minutes of activity muscles may begin to fatigue and lose the ability to respond the the nerve trigger as rapidly as necessary and you may re-injure yourself by overloading the ligaments.

If you are wanting to rest, alternate between positions every fifteen minutes or so. Stand for a while, sit for a while, as you tolerate. It is best to not remain doing any single activity or posture for long periods especially when you are really sore.

The things that will stress your spine the most are poor sitting posture and long periods of sitting, and the BLT. No, not the sandwich, but Bending Lifting and Twisting and especially combinations of those.

Just remember too little activity is just as damaging as too much.

If you or someone you know has lower back pain, sciatica or a herniated disc, call us at (414) 355-0433 to schedule a Complimentary Consultation with Dr. Donaldson to find out if you qualify for one of our StandUpRight Spinal Disc Decompression programs or request an appointment online.

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: So your back starts to hurt. First thing you might do is take some ibuprofen or aspirin or other anti-inflammatory drug. The television commercials make it seem like the thing to do. But these drugs are not without well-documented risks. Is it really the right thing to do? Well, it depends on what you are trying to do and why?

If you are just trying to not deal with the pain, then it might do the trick. It might get rid of the pain. Good for now. And maybe good for a while. But then the pain comes back, so you do it again. And again. And again. Pretty soon you realize that it's not working this time.

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: Sometimes back pain seems like it goes on forever. It can be pretty scary wondering about your future. "What if I continue to get worse? What if my sciatic leg pain never goes away? Will I ever be able to get back to a normal life again?"

Some things never can get better. A piece of steak never turns back into a cow's leg. Humpty-Dumpty couldn't be put back together again. Done is done.

But the good thing about living things is they have the capacity to heal. Healing means repair and replacement of diseased, broken or failing tissue. Living things heal, dead things don't. So even the disc can heal. Slowly. And under the right conditions. But the tissue does have living cells that are able to repair and replace damaged tissue.

"I had x-rays and MRIs and they say nothing is wrong except arthritis."

"My doctor says my insurance company tells him I don't need x-rays of my back and that I should just take these drugs and my back pain would go away. Well, it didn’t. My back keeps hurting and all they do is keep giving me drugs. What’s wrong?"

Both of these stories point out the missed opportunity of spinal x-rays.

Sometimes people come to us with page after page of x-ray, CT and MRI reports and still have never had a good explanation of why they have not gotten any better. On the other hand we see people come to us with long-standing back pain that they can't get rid of and who have never been x-rayed. Some insurance companies refuse to pay for x-rays in the first thirty days, yet Medicare thinks the x-ray is important.

If you can't do any other exercise you can always walk, right? It's symmetrical, it's low impact, it can increase your aerobic capacity and burn calories, plus you get to enjoy being outside in the air and sunshine.

But there are people for whom walking might not be the best. It might actually do more harm than good, especially if you have a herniated disc in your back.

Children don't need any more problems than they already have. And the last thing a child needs is a herniated disc problem. It can ruin some of the best years of a person's life. It is known that the risk of having back pain as an adult increases when a person experiences lower back pain as a child.

Years ago when computers first came into daily use we thought that by today we'd live in a "paperless society." But now when children have computers at school, computers at home, even computers in their hands, you'd think that text books would be obsolete and all they'd have to carry back and forth to school would be their lunch. That's waaaaay not true. Every year it seems like the backpacks get heavier instead of lighter.

So you've overcome that nasty sciatica. No more shooting pain into your leg whenever you hit a bump while driving your car. No more having to drag yourself home after work and lie on the floor all night just to find a bit of relief. Maybe you can even stop the medication that knocks you out and constipates you for days on end.

The worst thing in the world would be for the pain to come back once you have had some relief. Sure, you are happy that you feel better. That's a good first step. But getting the pain reduced is only one step toward solving the problem that caused the pain in the first place. So let the healing begin.

Whether the direct cause of your sciatic nerve pain is a herniated disc, spinal stenosis, facet syndrome or piriformis syndrome, as the nerve pain begins to lessen you need to be paying close attention to your lifestyle so you can change the habits that got you into such a condition.